Hello all,

I again read the whole chapter as I found it to be just another tragic novel that I had to keep reading to understand entirely.

The first question I have is what is an "underclass."  I'm assuming in this context it is a class below other classes in question--Massey's example being Hispanics v. whites (and other minorities) in the United States.  Just clarification on the definition of this concept would be nice!

The exploitation of Mexicans in the chapter was, academically, interesting to learn about as it isn't something I knew a whole lot about.  The history of Mexicans in the workforce was interesting and fairly unfortunate.  I was also bothered to find out about the lynchings of Mexicans in the south--not that I didn't foresee it but lynchings aren't a joyous subject.

I found the chapter to be almost comedic during Massey's discussion of the various acts and such the government instated.  It was quite funny to discover how much the nation actually screwed themselves over by implementing those policies.  I would like to know more about them though, just as to what exactly the complete extent was and how they connected--that was a little fuzzy for me for some reason.  Just a whole lot of numbers without a place to put them.

I was bothered by the effects of these policies on legal immigrants and U.S. workers.

Also, what is the Dillingham Commission?  I don't think that was ever expressly mentioned and I didn't know what it was.

The chapter got less funny and more bothersome as we got into the discussion of racism against Hispanics in recent years.  I was really quite surprised to discover the numbers on page 149 of the text--too many to list here, but shocking nonetheless.  I already knew about the USA PATRIOT Act which is just mortifying to me as a U.S. citizen.

As a fun chart (I know you like those) I thought the Stereotype Content Model on page 150 was very interesting.

Income disparities were pretty straightforward--unfortunately.

I also would like to know if the actions by congress discussed on page 156 actually ended up having any implications?  It says "if this happens" so I'm wondering if it has since the publishing of this book!

Thanks,
Joe